at about the 7 minute mark Heyman goes into a routine in which he says Wrestlemania 33 (next week) will be the death of Goldberg, and then says Kaddish for him. though he reversed the first couple of words..

Mar 29, 2017

A yeshiva bochur asked Rav Chaim Kanievsky about a difficult predicament in which he finds himself. He tells Rav Kanievsky that he, as a yeshiva bochur, keeps the Torah and mitzvos like all yeshiva bochurim, but unfortunately his family does not. At all. In any way. They respect his choice ot be frum and learn in yeshiva, and he respects them and their lifestyle, but he wants to go home and stay there for Pesach. He says that while they would be eating actual chametz on Pesach, he would have his own shmura matza and wine and everything else needed for a pesach sedder, but they refuse to clean the house from chametz and to stop eating the chametz. He says his mother told him that he can eat whatever he wants, whenever he wants, however he wants, but he should not bother them.

The young man asks Rav Kanievsky that if he stays home, they might eat matza with him and eat with him at the seder, but is he allowed to stay home considering the halacha that one cannot live in a place with real chametz present lest he come to eat from it himself. However, if he goes away, they'll eat the chametz as well, but he himself won't feel as a free person.

Rav Kanievsky's response was that he should do whatever possible to find another place to sleep and eat during Pesach and not go home where they will be eating real chametz. Rav Kanievsky added, surely you will find an appropriate place as everyone says at the seder "kol dichfin yeisi vyeichol" - let all who need come and eat.

Rav Kanievsky added that while he has heard that some people sell the chametz belonging to non-religious relatives, using the din of "zachin" - doing something good on behalf of someone else even without his knowledge works because it is presumed he would have wanted it, it definitely does not work if they are continuing to eat the chametz that was "sold" as they are then showing clearly they did not want the chametz to be sold.
sources: Kikar, Kol Hai News, Behadrei

PR company Merkaim Hutzot Zahav has been advertising a new smurfs movie around the country. The billboards have appeared as so:

3 smurfs and 1 female smurf (I am told she is called a smurfette)

They placed a billboard in Bnei Braq that censored out the smurfette and appears as so..

Now, I have basically stopped reporting every time a publication censors out women, as it has just become too repetitive and I don't see the need or point in saying the same thing every time. But this is an unusual situation, as the female censored out is a smurfette, not a human. This is actually funny and unique.

The first point I would like to make is that I have seen a lot of online criticism, and derision, and ridicule, of the Haredi community for this ridiculousness. I would like to point out that nowhere, in any of the 3 or 4 articles I read about this, did I see any indication that the Haredi askanim demanded this. It seems to have simply been a preemptive marketing decision made by the marketing company to avoid trouble, as they are wont to do nowadays just assuming the Haredim will not want women in the advertisements in their areas.

Meaning, the Haredim don't seem to actually be responsible for this ridiculousness. Rather, the marketing company is.

The second point I would make is that it is funny that posting the image of the smurfette in Bei Braq is thought of to be problematic, but advertising the movie itself in Bnei Braq seems to be considered perfectly fine and acceptable.

The third point is the "hava amina" of cropping out the smurfette is just too funny, especially thinking what it might lead to. For example, will all publications in haredi areas soon begin censoring out female cats, giraffes, cows.. (e.g. books, magazines, etc)? The zoo or safari advertisements will only show male monkeys and hippos and no female ones. All reprints of books on hilchos shchita with pictures for clarity will be reprinted with the udders removed, as well as Haredi books about animals will not print pictures any female animals, especially while still on the cow. Hens are long gone, and packagers of eggs will have to be careful what imagery they use on the packaging.. as a matter of fact, the eggs themselves will all come blurred out somehow from now on, and the chickens sold in the supermarket will all have to be thickly wrapped with opaque packaging so the Haredi customer cannot see the shape of the legs or breasts of the female chickens, or maybe Haredim will have to stop purchasing chicken completely, or at least cover the wings until the elbows, cover the polkies, and definitely the chicken breasts.....

in the first picture above you can 2 versions of matza made by the "Yerushalmi"
brand. one is matza shmura and one is not shmura but "mehudarot". both
have the hechsher of the badatz eida.

My question is:
a. I am surprised that Eida gives a hechsher on non-shmura matza. any comment?
b. what is mehudar matza, if not shmura?

In the other picture are two other brands of non-shmura matza.
my question is if you look at the prices and compare it to the prices of
Yerushalmi in the first picture, you'll see a very significant
difference in price, even taking into account the different sizes of the
packages.

I get the significant difference in price between the shmura matza and
the non-shmura matza, but why is there such a major difference in price
between yerushalmi non-shmura and the other non-shmuras? Even if it
would cost a little more for the brand name and for the hechsher - so
much more?

thoughts?

I am pretty sure only a marketer at the Eida could figure out how to call flour and water that isnt shmura matza "mehudarot"

Channel 10 News (Nana) has a story about a couple that got married, through the Rabbanut with a Rabbanut rabbi officiating, who were told three months after the wedding, after they had to chase down the Rabbanut to get an answer as to why they had not yet received their official license, that they are not married and their permission to marry was a clerical mistake.

Until now the Rabbanut was accustomed to canceling conversions retroactively...now they are canceling weddings, that they themselves performed, retroactively.

The Rabbanut claims they had a hard time finding out information about the bride's background - they could not find the rabbi in South Africa that had married her parents way back when, so they just cannot confirm her status as Jewish. The fact that it was already approved is irrelevant as that was simply a clerk that was too hasty and made a mistake and approved it, not realizing they were in the middle of an investigation. Because they cannot confirm her Jewish status, she is not married.

As if her being Jewish depend son the Rabbanut investigator. It does not, and she very well might be married halachically even without the Rabbanut, but here is where the problems really begin.

3 months later the Rabbanut is saying the couple is not married. And the wife is pregnant.

That means, this child will be given the status of a non-Jew according to the Rabbanut. Just because the Rabbanut could not find old information. After they got pregnant after marriage because the Rabbanut said it was ok. And, even if really Jewish, the child will be illegitimate, until the Rabbanut says otherwise. And, how will this affect her need for a gett, at some point int he future if it should ever happen, God forbid? Will they make her have a gett or will they say she is not Jewish? And, how will that affect future children, perhaps from a different marriage to either a Jew or a non-Jew - will future children be mamzeirim?

The biggest problem here is not even the mistake that was made. Mistakes happen, even with human victims and horrific ramifications. The biggest problem is the behavior of the Rabbanut in response to the mistake. As soon as they discovered the mistake they should have contacted the couple and let them know there was a problem and to avoid getting pregnant. Besides for that, they should have doubled and tripled their efforts to find a resolution, so that they would not have to destroy these people's lives.

Instead they simply avoided the couple for three months and simply writes it off as a mistake without offering any hope for a resolution.

Mar 27, 2017

According to a report in Haaretz, one of the leaks from one of the investigations into Netanyahu's affairs (investigation #2000, fyi) is about how as part of the deal being arranged, allegedly, between Netanyahu and Noni Moses, head of Yediot Acharonot, Yediot would write negative articles about Naftali Bennet, head of Habayit Hayehudi and a politician seen by many as a potential rival to Netanyahu's position of leadership.

This would have been Israel's version of what has become known in the USA as #FakeNews. A politician telling newspapers to do hit jobs on rival politicians and then the public just reads it as regular news and editorials not knowing that the slant was dictated by political rivals.

On the one hand, thankfully it didn't end up happening. On the other hand, how do we know that most of what we read in the newspapers and other news media is already not fake news?

I am not sure what exactly is right and wrong here, but the Ministry of Health now has an organization called "Matnat Chinam" in its sights. Matnat Chinam is an organization that encourages and assists/facilitates with live kidney donations.

The Ministry of Health is claiming that there are two problems with the way Matnat Chinam woks:
1. they arrange kidney donations for people that have not gone through the entire process and might not even have started dialysis, while people have been in the system and on dialysis for years and have been waiting for a kidney donation for a long time continue to wait with no donor. Essentially, they are saying, Matnat Chinam people skip the line over more serious cases.
2. the Ministry of Health does not like that donors through Matnat Chinam have the option of checking a box to limit their donation to Jewish recipients only. According to Ministry of Health guidelines, all donations have to be open to people of all races equally.
source: Kipa

I get the issue of equality among the potential recipients and not discriminating in donations, but someone who is a willing live donor should also have some say to whom he or she wants to donate, if they have such a preference. You cannot force people who are voluntarily donating an organ to donate it to whom you want to give it to, if they don't want to give it to that person. If you say people cannot donate unless they give an open donation to whomever ends up receiving it, it seems likely that the number of willing donors will suddenly drop drastically.

Regarding the line and how Matnat Chinam recipients basically jump the line, that makes sense to me. Perhaps all those with more serious kidney conditions that are closer to the head of the line should register with Matnat Chinam to be recipients and maybe they'll get kidneys faster than through the Ministry of Health. Or maybe the Ministry of Health needs to figure out how to improve their system of kidney donation so that more potential donors will sign up and donate through them and not need to go through private organizations like Matnat Chinam.

Tomorrow, Tuesday, is the "Day of Good Deeds" and people are encouraged to focus more tomorrow on being kind and doing good things for others than they might be on normal days.

The Israel Police are going to be participating in the day by giving out traffic tickets. No, not the normal tickets that make people mutter and sometimes curse the police for having to pay hundreds or thousands of shekels on fines. These tickets will be for being magnanimous on the roads and being considerate to other drivers. The ticket will look like a regular ticket but will say it is a positive ticket given with love from the police for the Day of Good Deeds.

They expect, or hope, that this will encourage drivers to follow the law and rules of the road through positive reinforcement, the carrot rather than the stick.
source: Radio Kol Hai News

This is very nice but is not much of a carrot. When someone breaks the law on the roads and runs a red light, crosses a bold line, holds his cellphone while driving, he gets a ticket that does not just say "this is a negative ticket given with disappointment by the Police". They give you a fine, often a large one, along with "points" on your driving record that eventually lead to more punishments such as having your license revoked or having to take additional driving lessons or whatnot.

If they really want to encourage the good deeds on the road and make a carrot that will do something positive, maybe they should give out money with the positive tickets. For letting someone merge in front of you you get a positive ticket worth 150nis. For not honking ten times at the guy who slightly slowed down ahead of you you'll get a positive ticket worth 75nis. For pulling over to the side to allow an ambulance t pass you'll get a positive ticket worth 250nis. and the like. That is something drivers will really appreciate and be encouraged by.

Mar 23, 2017

The following picture from the scene of yesterday's attack in England has sparked outrage, at least in news headlines.

in the bottom left corner you can see a frum guy taking a selfie at the scene of the attack.

In case you think this might not be what it looks like, a video has been published in which you can see he is clearly Jewish and taking selfies, and his wife also appears in a snood.

It might seem insensitive, but I do not know why or what the big deal is. other people are also taking pictures. Perhaps he is taking pictures and video and posting it to social media or a website and "reporting" on the situation to the wider public - and then what makes him different than the professional media who are all there taking pictures as well and have cameras pointed on their reporters? Right next to him is someone else taking a picture - outrage should be directed at him simply because he is including himself in his pictures?

The time has come to have equality regarding inspections among all the educational institutions that are funded by the State. There is no reason to discriminate specifically against the torah institutions, to count them as if they are refugees or prison inmates, while academic institutions are granted complete independence..... when will there be equality in inspections and reviews between all funded institutions both higher education academic and torah institutions?

-- MK Yisrael Eichler (UTJ), after a number of yeshivas were recently subjected to inspections on Purim day and sanctioned for students not being present.

The main difference, I think, between the types of institutions is that in the "torah institutions" (read: yeshivas and kolels) basically anything goes - there might be a test for admissions into the yeshiva, but after that there is no measure of performance, no tests, no graduation, no critical development, while in academic institutions there is regular testing and submissions of work and performance reviews.. it is far easier for the State to know what is going on and examine that which is produced by the academic institutions and therefore fund them, than it is to do so by the yeshivas. By the yeshivas they are flying blind and have no idea if the money is going to further education or to line someone's pockets or if it is being used efficiently for the purpose for which it is given. They don't even know who really shows up and who does or does not do any work in the yeshiva system, while in academic institutions attendance is taken and test results are published, etc. They have to perform somewhat regular inspections on the yeshivas to get at least some minimal information.

will we one day see Israeli teams, or an Israeli National Team, play baseball against Palestinian teams and a Palestinian National Team? Peace would probably have to come first, and we know how likely that is...

Eri silkworms have two connections to the Bible - one is that silk is a material mentioned in the Bible, and the other is that this particular species feeds on the castor bean plant, which many identify as the kikayon - the tree that shaded Jonah. But perhaps the most powerful religious aspect of this creature is the sheer inspirational wonder of it!

On a cold winter day in New York City I decided to break the ice with strangers and sing their favorite songs in Carpool Karaoke With Strangers. Inspired by the James Cordin Carpool karaoke series I hit the streets of Manhattan to sing song with new friends. Enjoy!

Mar 22, 2017

If the "heritage rule" was good for Team Israel in the recent World Baseball Classic tournament, it has to be good enough for the victims of terror...

The Knesset yesterday passed a law by which the State of Israel will pay compensation to victims of terror attacks abroad, even if the attack was not directly directed at Israel or the Jewish people. Payment would be made to a victim of a terror attack performed by a terror organization who has in its charter the stated goal to attack Israel, Israelis or Jews.

The law qualifies the payment to allow it to be lessened in cases where the foreign country in which the attack took place also pays compensation for the attack, or for other reasons to be determined later.
source: Kikar

My main question or concern would be, who qualifies for payment? Only Jewish victims? What about any victim of ISIS terror, or some other jihadi or Islamist group that wants to destroy Israel and kill Jews, among whatever other goals it has - will Israel start paying out money to victims of Islamic terror all over the world? Syria wants to destroy Israel - does Israel now have to pay all the Syrian victims of the civil war, and especially of ISIS, compensation as victims of terror?

Someone inherited a piece of land but had nothing to do with it. The parcel of land is located in a rocky and mountainess area and he basically has nothing to do with it. He came to Rav Zilbershtein asking about the possibility of selling it.

Rav Zilbershtein responded that right now it seems worth little to him but in the future one day it will be extremely valuable.

This is not just astute real estate advice being handed out by Rav Zilbershtein, but something more esoteric.

Rav Zilbershtein explained that in the future the value will jump and increase tremendously. He quoted a "Chacham Laniado" who said (quoting a medrash) that all the stones of Eretz Yisrael will be very valuable as every single stone has a hidden "segulah" associated with it but at some future time all those segulahs will be revealed.

He gave some examples of stones that will be good for causing peace (Netanyahu and Abbas should get some of those now!), others that relieve tooth pain, stop bleeding, cut through other stone, remove kidney stones, etc.

Rav Zilbershtein concluded quoting his brother in law Rav Chaim Kanievsky that mashiach is going to be coming literally at any moment, so the land is surely worth holding on ot until it will be very valuable in the days of Mashiach.
source: Kooker

The Ministry of Religious Affairs is reportedly trying to force the Chief Rabbi of Kfar Saba, Rav Avraham Shlush, to retire. Rav Shlush is 87 years old and they have discovered through reports and investigation that he is hardly functioning. It seems that he only goes into his office once a week for a short amount of time and he does not even live in the city - he lives in Jerusalem.

The problem is that despite the fact that the law was changed a while back limiting city rabbis to a maximum age of 70 with the possibility of an extension to 75, Rabbi Shlush is grandfathered into the old system of the appointment being for life. And the law now is that a city rabbi must live in the city he is rabbi of. A further problem is that Rabbi Shlush was never formally appointed to the position, but started functioning in it unofficially in the 1950s and it just became his.

So they want to push him out, but the Minister of Religious Affairs, David Azoulai, is fighting to keep him in place, as it seems he and his family want him to retain the position.

In my opinion, this is the biggest support for the forcing of a retirement age. Here you have a rav not functioning and the city suffers because of it, but there is really nothing anyone can do about it. I do think that because he is grandfathered in, he should not be forced out and taken to court. He is a remnant of the old system, and that's the way it is, and this is the reason the law was changed. He should be pressured to retire with perhaps some coordination regarding the granting of an honorary position and title that might make him happy. Surely he and his family can be persuaded that for the good of the city it is time to move on and let a younger rabbi take this leadership position.

Do religious female soldiers face special challenges in combat units? • What support is available for them? • Host Steve Ganot speaks with Lt. (res.) Elisheva Elazar about the Aluma organization's efforts to assist religious women in the IDF.

Mar 19, 2017

Two women come to the beis din fighting about a divorce. It turns out that one of them had previously been a man before undergoing a sex-change operation. They married as classic husband and wife and raised their children together. When the husband went through his changes, a year ago, the couple separated. The wife could not move on and date and marry anyone else, because she was still halachically married to her "husband" - he/she had not [yet] given his wife a gett.

After hearing the unusual situation, the dayanim decided that this is good reason for granting a gett, and there is no reason to insist on shalom bayis counseling as it clearly won't lead to reconciliation and a happy marriage. The beis din ordered the parties to begin the process of divorce.

The problem was then raised by the "husband" when s/he said that he cannot grant a gett because he is no longer a man but a woman, and a woman is unable to grant a gett.

The wife then requested an annulment of the marriage, but the dayanim said that would not be possible. The dayanim decided that the husband had to give a gett and if he would not he would be considered as a gett refuser and would end up in jail.

After some arguing about the details of their relationship, the dayanim decided that halachically the husband is a man and is obligated to give the gett.

The husband eventually agreed to give the gett, but during the process recanted and explained that s/he was upset that s/he is being related to in the text of the gett as a male. She criticized the beis din for living in the Middle Ages. After being warned again about possibly ending up in jail, s/he agreed to complete the process and give the gett.
source: Ynet

fascinating. Whatever the exact details of the case are (Ynet is not reliable to get the details and halachic aspects correct), the debate and potential ramifications are just fascinating. I know that the Tzitz Eliezer has a different position on the matter of transgender people and considers the possibility of considering them as their new gender, but I am not sure he comes to a definitive conclusion. In the few shiurim I have heard on the matter, the general consensus is that halachically there is no such thing as a sex change and the Tzitz Eliezer is only referenced in limited situations.

In the article they say that it seems this is the first time such a case, of a transgender coming to give a gett in beis din, has ever happened. Perhaps this will open up the debate and discussion and help things get clarified in society. In the meantime, much pain can be avoided if people in such situations would deal with this in advance...

Eating Twinkies With God: We don't need to look for and wide for God. He's in every one of us and in every thing that we do. Whether you believe or not, we all can agree that by helping each other, each good act that we do makes this world a brighter place. Let us rise to the occasion and be kinder to each other, to help one another. We are all on the same team.

Jerusalem's Machne Yehuda Market ("Shuk", in Hebrew), is one of Israel's most popular markets. The standard daytime market becomes a bustling nightlife scene, with restaurants, bars and special cultural events. To make sure you don't miss a thing - there's even an app offering a self-guided tour to walk you through the market's many attractions. Watch to get a taste of this special place:

Mar 16, 2017

The situation with Rav Levenstein, head of the Army Preparatory Yeshiva of Eli and the Defense Ministry continue to stay hot. Rav Levenstein spoke harshly against the IDF drafting women and specifically against religious women who go in to serve. Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman already threatened to de-license the institution. The public outcry has been hot as well, with many speaking against Rav Levenstein, and a common thread in Purim costumes this year was poking fun at what he said.

MK Elazar Stern (Yesh Atid) is now proposing a law as a result of that friction. Stern is proposing a law by which sanctions will be placed on rabbis and rosh yeshivas that speak out against the drafting of women or any specific sector. The law would target the army prep institutions specifically and say that such institutions that preach against the drafting of women would lose official recognition and would lose funding from both the Defense Ministry and the Education Ministry.
source: Kipa

I am not sure what they expect of a rabbinic figure. Any relatively mainstream rabbinic figure would be opposed to the drafting of women. They always have been and will largely continue to be, even with increasingly more liberal elements taking a more liberal position on the matter.

Rabbi Levenstein might have been a bit crass in the way he said it, and he could probably take a few lessons in being more tactful, but what he said is not really anything new - rabbis in both the DL communities and the Haredi communities have been taking that position since the IDF first tried to draft women decades ago.

This is a silly proposal and it wants to be the thought police. It wants to tell people what they can say and what they cannot say. Obviously people, rabbis, cannot say things that would incite violence and it is distasteful, or worse, to speak disparagingly about other people and groups just because you disagree with their style, but to criminalize regular speak against public policy? That is shameful.

And for the specific proposal, I am surprised Stern limited it to just the army prep institutions and didn't include any rabbi or rosh yeshiva of any institution. Instead of leaving his law so limited, he could have made it so much broader to deal with the same problem. I am against, in general, making laws to deal with specific people rather than broader issues. It is a good thing this law won't pass anyway, because it is a bad law, both in what it tries to do and in how it tries to do it.

Mar 15, 2017

In budget negotiations between Mayor of Jerusalem Nir Barkat and Haredi representatives, the issue of shabbat desecration in the city has become a contentious issue, with the Haredim making threats to not support the budget unless the status quo is restored.

With the report on the status quo, as prepared by the Director of City Hall and city legal counsel, ready to be publicized, things have changed. They have come to a tentative deal, and one of the demand sis that the mayor not publicize the report and its findings.

Why would that be an important point to add to the negotiations? Because the report is expected to conclude that there has been no significant breach in the status quo.
source: Kikar

The Haredi parties do not want that publicized, as it would hurt their image and campaigns.

In other words, the Haredi reps in City Hall in Jerusalem prefer to keep pumping out "fake news" about the status quo to its people so it can drive them emotionally and ride their waves of support and draw more votes and more support. The fact that it is not true makes no difference. They prefer to hide the truth from their people, because it weakens them.

I always love the brazenness, if that's the right word, of the Eida Hachareidis. It makes for interesting, and often humorous, situations.

Recently the Eida has renewed its protests in Jerusalem on Shabbos to protest against what they describe as the increasing levels of chilul shabbos in the city.

No problem there. Every person has the basic human right to protest. I have no idea if they apply for police permits for their protests, but that is really irrelevant to the discussion.

The Eida people protesting in the streets of Jerusalem means the police have to send out the forces to secure the protest and to ensure it does not get violent, something that has historically been prone to happen at Eida protests. There is also irony in protesting chilul shabbos on shabbos itself thereby causing additional chilul shabbos by the Jewish security forces, but that too is irrelevant to this discussion.

The Eida is upset that the police send female police officers among the forces to deal with the protests, and when putting down the violence or keeping them in order, they get physically involved and speak to them not nicely. And, the Eida is unable to photograph and video these incidents because it is Shabbos.

To that end, the Eida has drafted and sent a letter to the police demanding that they not send female police to these protests and saying that it raises the level of conflict unnecessarily.
source: Behadrei

1. the problem of no cameras available can be solved multiple ways using creative thinking. For example, they can hire a "Shabbos Goy" to photograph these events. Or, they can move their protests to a weekday.

2. the brazenness mentioned above is in holding protests and getting violent (as historically has been known to happen) and then demanding which type of police should be sent and how they should respond and act. They want to control the protests and the police.

3. Another solution, knowing in advance that the police are going to be sending violent women to quell their peaceful protest, is cancel the protest. Is a person allowed to put himself in a situation that he knows in advance will violate his halachic sensitivities? There is definitely a discussion about that worth having, but if one does put himself in such a situation he should surely not then complain about the results of it...

In an interview with The National, Linda Sarsour, a Palestinian-American feminist activist, said the Zionism and feminism cannot go together. A person cannot be a Zionist or support Zionism while being a feminist.

There are many Zionist feminists, but Sarsour would simply write them off and not truly being feminists. The contradiction in her very essence with what she says, though, is that feminism is far more compatible with Zionism than it is with Islamism, or even with just plain Muslim. If Sarsour as an Islamist, as a Muslim, can be a feminist, as she says she is, then it is far easier to imagine the existence of Zionist feminists. Muslim countries treat women with terrible inequality and oppression, and Israel does not even compare in the slightest to that. Feminism is just the one thing she should not be complaining about regarding Israel and Zionists. Sure, things are not perfect with Zionists and Israel, for women as well, but they are immeasurably better than the way Muslims treat their women and people.

Many of the examples given by Sarsour as to how Palestinian women are oppressed have nothing to do with them being women. They are oppressed because of the situation in which they live, and in that regard are treated by Israel as equals with the men. If Palestinian women don't have access to scholarships it is either not because they are women but Palestinian, if Israel is preventing that access, or because it is their Arab leaders who are preventing it.

Sarsour is able to be a feminist because she lives in the USA. If she lived in any of the Arab countries, she would have been jailed or killed long ago.

Zionism is far more compatible with feminism that whatever Sarsour is.

Mar 14, 2017

I am not quite sure what they are actually threatening to do, but "the Haredim" are threatening to somehow shut down the Jerusalem Marathon this Friday if the yeshiva student arrested this past Sunday for being AWOL (as a follower of Rav Shmuel Auerbach and part of the "Peleg Hayerushalmi" he avoided all the IDF notices and did not even do the initial registration with the IDF) is not released immediately.

They seem to be particularly upset this time, as if the previous times boys were arrested they were not really so upset, because previous arrests were made randomly, when the authorities happened to stumble upon the relevant young man, while this time they planned his arrest and got him at home while he was out of yeshiva for Purim break after he successfully evaded the IDF arresting forces for over a year.

They consider this an escalation, though I am not sure why. Because they planned it and looked for this guy? I am not quite sure how somebody evades arrest for this for over a year. If he was learning in his yeshiva. How hard could it have been to find him?

Anyways, they say that with the marathon event requiring much of the city roads to be closed down anyway, and to prevent any disturbances they will have to deploy an immense number of police and security forces, along with dealing with traffic disruptions all over the country, and their protests will exasperate the disruption of traffic.

So, basically, they are saying they are going to hold some more protests at various major intersections in Jerusalem and in other cities around the country, and that will "seal the fate of the Jerusalem Marathon".
source: Ynetnews

Do they think the Israel Police does not have enough forces to deal with their additional disruptions? Even if their upcoming protest would be wildly successful, what fate would it seal for the marathon? Do they think the police will shut down the marathon because of some protest somewhere holding up traffic? The issue might be easily resolvable - divert some marathon runners, especially female ones, through the protests and have them cause some disruptions of their own...

They are a bunch of delusional loons who think they wield more power than they actually do.

MK Michael Malkieli (Shas) has proposed a law by which yeshiva students would be exempt from paying Bituach Leumi's monthly payments until age 19.

The purpose of the law is to equate the yeshiva students in this regard to the students of the State school system, in which students are exempt from paying until the end of 12th grade or until they reach the age of 19 years old. Until now yeshiva students began making payments at the age of 18.

The explanation given is that the intent of the original lawmaker was clearly to exempt students from paying Bituach Leumi until the age of 19 and as soon as the State recognizes a school system, no matter which one, and supports it and funds it the same laws should apply to the students in all these school systems.

Malkieli says this will save 1400nis a year for yeshiva students and there is no reason they should be discriminated against.

Malkieli said it would save yeshiva students 1400nis per year, but actually that only applies until they hit the age of 19. After that they will have to pay the Bituach Leumi payments. I wonder how many and what percentage of yeshiva students will be affected by this, and for how long. If the average yeshiva student enters yeshiva at the age of 17, with some starting at 16 and some at 18, the main benefit will be for a year and a half, up to 2 years. He should also be proposing a law equating them to soldiers and exempt them from paying for a further 3 years - after all, if the State recognizes the yeshivas as an alternative to the army, and funds them and supports them and licenses them, the students should have equal terms as well.

Mar 9, 2017

NOTE: I was not paid to review this book. It is an unbiased and objective review. If you have a book with Jewish or Israel related content and would like me to write a review, contact me for details of where to send me a review copy of the book.

Book Review: The Weapon Wizards: How Israel BecameA High-Tech Superpower, by Yaakov Katz and Amir BohbotReviewed by Dr. Harold Goldmeier

Yaakov Katz and Amir Bohbot,
authors of The Weapon Wizards: How Israel
Became a High-Tech Military Superpower(St. Martin’s Press 2017), prove
themselves to be far more than experienced and skilled military journalists
(Mr. Katz is now the Editor of The Jerusalem
Post). They keep readers engrossed with prideful descriptions about Israel’s
arsenal of masterful weapons of war and defense. Most captivating, are accounts
about the ingenuity and chutzpa of the wizards creating the weapons, and the
Israeli culture that nourishes ingenuity and imagination. The package is
wrapped in a sorrowful but realistic fixation of impending doom and
annihilation.

The book is an important
contribution to modern anthropological literature written by social researchers.
The authors convey the point that first and foremost Israel’s weapons wizards consider
the group (Jews) destiny beyond the importance of any individual. A former
Defense Ministry director general told the authors, “We have: innovative
people, combat experience to know what we need and immediate operational use
for what we develop since we are almost always in a state of conflict.” Another
wizard describes how living in “the shadow of the guillotine sharpens the
mind.”

Israel relies on science, military technology,
engineering, mathematics, and psychology for two reasons. First, it is a military
program of deterrence with nuclear capabilities, America the superpower as its
“go-to” defensive backup, and Israel’s enormously successful conventional
military capabilities. University of Chicago professor Hans Morgenthau called
it maintaining a ‘balance of terror’ during the Cold War.

Second, Israel lacks allies and
defense pacts guaranteeing its existence like NATO countries, though it is more
a democracy, stable and better friend to the West than Turkey. Knesset member
Yair Shamir told me in 2015 that Israel must be weapons independent with a
homemade high-tech arms industry, because it cannot rely on vacillating allies.
Their interests are not always those of Israel’s best interests. The whims and
agendas of others have resulted in loan freezes, arms embargoes, withholding of
intelligence, and most recently temporarily terminating domestic airplane
flights into Ben Gurion Airport to punish Israel.

Key to Israel’s success is a deep and
abiding sense of nationalism, and a culture that accepts even encourages
breaking rules. Twenty-three year olds are officers in the IDF; they are ten
years younger than those with equal rank in other militaries “leaving the young
soldiers with no choice but to make key decisions on their own.” That’s exactly
what an American Marine officer visiting an Israel Defense Force base told my
nephew with a tone of wonderment when he asked the age of the Israeli officer
leading the tour.

Several factors incubate IDF wizards.
The General Electric motto, “Imagination at work,” is a meme taken to heart
throughout Israeli society. The IDF is a melting pot for youth from a dozen
different cultures and countries. Multi-disciplinary education is encouraged. Criticizing
authority and decisions is accepted. The wizard behind the Iron Dome rocket
defense system made a career in the air force, but took a leave to earn a
doctorate in business management and electrical engineering. The story behind
Iron Dome is his story. The highly successful rocket defense system is a
product.

The authors share a feel-good story
how Israel’s reliance and respect for all citizens serves Israel so well. Every
citizen has the potential to contribute, and military leaders are on the hunt
to find and harness them. Gathering intelligence relayed from satellites
requires unusual patience and persistence as images are beamed to command
headquarters. “The IDF created a subunit of highly qualified soldiers who have
remarkable visual and analytical capabilities. The common denominator among its
members is just as remarkable: they all have autism.”

The stories behind other weapons
told in the book are no different. There is the story of an ingenious wizard
who solved an existential problem confronting the IDF: inadequate intelligence
about Egyptian military Suez deployments in the 1960’s. He adapted a toy
airplane for longer flight with a camera attached, thus building the first
military-use spy drone. The US military ordered 175 Pioneer drones for use in
1991 against Saddam Hussein’s army invading Kuwait. Thinking the drones were
going to drop bombs on an Iraqi unit they waived their white shirts skyward: “It
was the first time in history that a military unit surrendered to a robot.”

The wizards adapted armor for tanks
against enemy rockets. An Istanbul born (1939) officer came up with tech
solutions like satellites for operational strategies. They designed new tactics
to warn civilians of impending attacks other militaries later adopted in urban
warfare. Wizards created worms and cyber
viruses used against Iran’s nuclear arms development program, and sabotaged key
component parts. Meir Dagan kept a picture in his Mossad office where many
imaginative super-secret intelligence actions were birthed. The picture is of
his father kneeling and killed by Nazis. “I look at this picture every day and
promise that the Holocaust will never happen again.” That promise motivates an
entire nation having suffered so long and cruelly by others.

The
Weapon Wizards is a great companion read to the 2009 Senor and Singer book,
Start-Up Nation: The Story of Israel’s
Economic Miracle. The latter describes how Israel established itself as a
major worldwide player in high-tech and biotech, with many of the business
founders being former military technology wizards. Katz and Bohbot discuss this
military-industrial partnership, and how it underpins Israel’s economy through
foreign sales.

The most important message Katz and
Bohbot deliver in The Weapon Wizards
is not about Israel’s admirable technological achievements. Israel’s current
war is not going to be won or lost with weapons technology, warfare strategies
or military intelligence. Israel must win on the diplomatic front. She faces an
onslaught of delegitimization by leftists, Muslim cabals and world leaders with
other agendas.

Weapons are “meaningless if
Israel’s operations lack the international stamp of legitimacy.” Katz and
Bohbot infer geopolitical implications forefend a blissful future. Rather than
bask in the glow of a supportive administration in the White House, as Israel’s
government leaders and sycophant pundits are doing, hopefully Israel’s leaders
can employ the same chutzpah, ingenuity, and penchant for improvisation to win
peace with her neighbors during these next four years. “For a country like
Israel, legitimacy is not trivial…(nor is) particularly American support.”

You can buy The Weapon Wizards on Amazon.comNOTE: I was not paid to review this book. It is an unbiased and objective review. If you have a book with Jewish or Israel related content and would like me to write a review, contact me for details of where to send me a review copy of the book.

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About Me

I am a regular Joe with a Yeshiva background. I learned in Telshe Yeshiva, Heichal HaTorah (R' Tzvi Kushelevsky), and a now defunct Halacha Kollel. I have semicha from R' Zalman Nechemia Goldberg and kaballa in Shechita from Dayan Schwartz of Kehillas HaYeraim (Chomas HaKashrus). I have a college degree in Finance from Touro College and am also a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer.
My wife and I, with our 8 children, ben porat yosef (knayna hara), live in Eretz Yisrael.